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Sunday, January 8, 2017

David C Pack: "Everyone who has challenged me has either died, been seriously injured or has been eliminated from the work."

The following appeared in the 1985 issue of the Ambassador Report. Thirty some years later and Dave Pack still has not changed.

David Pack's Reign of Terror

On the night of Roxanne Elliott's death, one of the last people - probably the very last one - Lois Elliott phoned before the tragedy was WCG minister David Pack, pastor of the Buffalo (North), New York congregation.. Exactly what was said, we don't know. At least not yet. That information may well come out should Lois Elliott ever recover sufficiently to stand trial. What is remarkable, however, is how often Pack's name seems to appear in conjunction with tragedies in the WCG. For a number of years now, no WCG minister's name has appeared more often in letters written to the Report complaining of ministerial abuse.

Pack, a burly 6-foot, 5-inch Ambassador College graduate known locally for his authoritarian style, has so incensed some in his flock that a group have circulated an open letter detailing his abuses and have called for his removal. The letter describes Pack's ministerial leadership as a "Reign of Terror." On the cover page, addressed to WCG headquarters leaders, they wrote: "David's power-crazed quest to totally dominate the mind, body, and spirit of church members has not been done in a corner and has been done clearly in view of all to see at headquarters in Pasadena."

On the following 13 pages of their letter the allegations about Pack read like a horror story. The authors contend that Pack constantly intimidates members, uses threats and mind-control methods, is given to extreme emotional outbursts, is highly political, believes in winning at all cost, has disfellowshipped members for trivial faults, prescribes diets while "playing M.D.," insists on being addressed as Mr. Pack, enjoys wearing skimpy, skin-tight shorts to sporting events, has actually worn a wolf costume to church socials, enjoys putting down women, and told one married woman with children, "It would be better for you to shack up one night with a man than wear makeup."

The letter quotes Pack as having said, "Everyone who has challenged me has either died, been seriously injured or has been eliminated from the work." And, "God backs me even if I am wrong."

On page 7 the authors made this statement to Pack (emphasis ours):

Doesn't it bother you that while you were in charge of the Rochester and Syracuse area there were three suicides? One can only wonder why they chose to kill themselves while you were their main advisor in the area. Perhaps you suggested to one or more of them that they would in no way make it into the Kingdom of God.... A statement such as, "You are no longer in the body of Christ," could have caused one to give up and kill himself.

The above quote was written well before the Elliott family tragedy. Some who knew little Roxanne and her mother Lois Elliott wonder if it might have been a prophecy.

At the very least, by these sorts of statements, Dave is taking his own spiritual temperature! Rather than quietly and prayerfully allowing God to fight his battles, he makes a preemptive strike, in a blatant attempt to intimidate. This doesn't stack up very well against the example set by Jesus in the Gospels. It is somewhat similar to statements occasionally made by Herbert W. Armstrong, though.

And here I thought that David Pack was such a gentle reasonable soul, with the milk of human kindness flowing through every vein, giving of himself and his possessions to help the poor, widow, fatherless and stranger -- sacrificing for the good of others as a humble saint and servant.

I guess I'll have to revise my estimate of him....

Better late than never (unless it's the Lake of Fire, in which case being late and missing it altogether would be a good thing, I would guess).

David C. Pack was always one of the worst NITPICKERS around. He would always accuse others of not faithfully following what HWA had taught on one point or another. To hear David Pack tell it, he was always getting in trouble and getting fired for faithfully standing up for the truth as taught by HWA. So, David Pack started his own RCG and said he would faithfully restore everything that HWA was teaching at the time of his death in January 1986. With such a great track record--at least according to David Pack's records--what could possibly go wrong? Had not David Pack already proved his doctrinal stability and faithfulness beyond the shred of a reasonable doubt?

After attracting many hundreds of followers to his RCG, David Pack started to make massive changes to what HWA had taught. David Pack even deleted some of his own major booklets that he had written that had supposedly proved the old teachings. David Pack, instead of HWA, suddenly got to be Elijah the Prophet (and bought an overpriced, used cup to prove it when he could not get his hands on HWA's cup). David Pack, instead of Jesus Christ (or Gerald Flurry) suddenly got to be That Prophet of Deuteronomy 18. David Pack suddenly came into possession of everything that every RCG member owned because it had suddenly become “common” and was distributed to everyone as he had need (and, apparently, of all the people in the RCG, only David Pack had any legitimate need of it). David Pack suddenly made such massive changes to end time prophecies that even he himself could not keep track of all the nonsense that he had made up about it. The real kicker is that, according to David Pack, anyone who cannot see and believe all of his latest teachings after his dozens and dozens of “proofs” in his hours and hours of mind-numbing noise must be just a NITPICKER!!!

David Pack's massive doctrinal changes are an excellent example of the sort of satanic BETRAYAL that former WCG people are encountering on the so-called COG scene today. Even when the self-appointed leader tells them what he supposedly believes at the start, it can all totally change after he has suckered them in and wasted their time and got his hands on their money. The changes are invariably, always, always, always for the worse. Things never get better at all, no matter how much the guy tries to act excited about all the wonderful “new revelation” and “new understanding” and “new truth” that has been given to them.

Met him once many years ago at an event at the Union NJ church. I'll never forget the impression he left.....intimidating and arrogant. I continue on in the Church of God, but wouldn't step foot in his organization.

When , oh when, will there ever be elected board members of local churches , with the laity voting for those boards, who have authority to dismiss a minister by majority vote? A dream or perhaps unreal fantasy for any of the COGs.

Based on my experience with several ministers during my church attendance days, Daves tyranny is what's expected from the church leaders. In the ministerial get together and 'refresher programs,' they figuratively hold hands, encouraging each other to be the local church despots. This is the established church culture. Which is why complaints to HQs never changes anything. In fact, headquarters secretly rejoices that its ministers are acting like thugs. it's the culture Herbie chose for the church.